Rafa Benitez sends major warning to Mike Ashley ahead of the January window – Report

According to The Mirror, Rafa Benitez has told the NUFC hierarchy to back him in the January transfer ­window, or risk a second relegation in three years – emphasising the need for new owners to arrive before the turn of the year.

The report states that the Spaniard is still ‘fuming’ about the lack of backing he received over the summer, resulting him in missing out on several top targets, seeing him forced to settle for the likes of third-choice Stoke striker Joselu.

Plans are underway ahead of the January window, however Benitez is believed to have warned Mike Ashley and co. following Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford that a failure to improve the squad this winter would leave us at risk of relegation.

With Benitez’s desperate to avoid a repeat of the summer window in January, we can only hope that a takeover can be completed by Amanda Staveley and PCP’s in the mean time.

Whilst Benitez warned fans over the weekend that we won’t have £100m to spend in January even if new owners came in, the arrival of Staveley would hand Rafa a priceless boost in the short and long-term at NUFC.

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If true, hopefully this makes Ashley realise just what sort of risk he’d be taking if he was to reject Staveley’s advances.

A new improved offer is expected before the week is out. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope it’s an acceptable one!

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Although NUFC has the foundations of being a great club, with the fan base and stadium, Ashley needs to take into consideration that there are other clubs that can be bought for the same or less money. For example Leeds. Part of the buying and selling process is negotiation commencing with a usual low ball offer and eventually leading to an agreement. The timeline of this process cannot be quantified as Ashley maybe looking at 400m and PCP offering 300m with each party counteroffering until there I s an agreement. However PCP are in a strong position as they can go elsewhere. Hopefully Ashley won’t call their bluff.